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Taiga-chan.
That's how this entire fucked up day had started and he swore he was never, ever going to forgive Tetsu for it.
Tetsu with his big blue eyes and his bedhead and the way the shirt he borrowed from him kept slipping off his slim shoulders. Tetsu with his soft voice and a plea of, “May we go to the beach to day, Taiga-chan?”
It was his rest day. His cheat day. Today was a day for lounging in bed and making out and playing video games, not outdoorsy shit, but Tetsu was feeling the call of the ocean or maybe he just wanted to see what he could get away with, Taiga wasn't sure.
Either way, he was learning that he was completely fucking whipped.
So they packed. They put on swim trunks and loose shirts and Taiga made doubly sure they brought sunscreen since Tetsu just needed to stand outside for a couple seconds before he started cooking, though he argued that wasn't true.
Taking the train now was always an experience. He didn't know how close or how far away to sit to him now that they were dating, now that it felt like every gesture he made was sending up a neon sign saying WE'RE GAY. Being ashamed of Tetsuya seemed completely foreign to him, but at the same time, he really couldn't bring himself to wrap an arm around him or smile or do anything too friendly.
Tetsu never seemed bothered; it always made him wonder if he even thought about it.
Thankfully, for whatever reason, the beach they had decided to go to was relatively empty. It was early enough that it was mostly filled with people wanting to exercise rather than lounge. There was a few people out jogging, a few more out in the water, and a group of guys their age – they had matching jackets and professional swimsuits so he assumed they were a swim team getting some practice in.
Gracelessly, he dropped their bag to the sand and kicked off his sandals, digging his feet into the ground to reach the cool layer underneath with an appreciative groan.
“Just brought one big towel,” Taiga said, looking over his shoulder. The group of four teens were the closest threat, but they seemed to be pretty busy... gesticulating wildly at each other. Well, two of them, anyway. “I can lay on the--”
“No.” Tetsu flipped open the towel. It crumpled to the ground, rather than floating prettily. His boyfriend's face scrunched in annoyance. “It will be fine, Taiga-chan. I don't think anyone will bother us.”
This had been before things had gotten awkward, so the nickname made him smile and made him bold enough to move in close and lift off his boyfriend's shirt after taking off his own. “Can't put sunscreen on you with that on,” he explained with a grin. Tetsu made a face. “Don't look at me like that. You know we gotta do it.”
“I don't like how he feels.” He relented regardless, bending down to pick up the bottle of lotion and handing it over. “It's very greasy and makes it difficult to feel your hands. Everything is dull.”
Taiga grunted in acknowledgment as he shook the bottle of lotion, squeezing a generous amount out onto his hands and rubbing them together. “Suck it up, Tetsu. The other option is me not bein' able to touch you at all because you have blisters all over.”
Rubbing him down took time. Taiga was careful to cover Tetsu's slender shoulders and chest especially, though he'd be lying if he said it didn't take a little longer for purely selfish reasons. He finished off by leaving a dollop on Tetsu's nose.
“Rub it in, you baby,” he said, shaking his head at the way Tetsu crinkled his nose. “C'mon, don't make me do it for you.”
His boyfriend had just started to say something when a high-pitched, “Hiii-ii~!” came from a ways down the beach.
It was one of the swimmers, a blonde guy not much taller than Tetsuya.
“Hi!” The boy said again after closing their distance in a sprint. Taiga wasn't sure if he was trying to get to them quicker or if he was just running away from two of his teammates, who seemed to be trying to apprehend him and failing. “I had to come over and talk to you! You two are so--”
“Nagisa-kun!” The guy with glasses shouted. “Stop this right now! It's none of our business!”
“Rei's right, we shouldn't be bothering them!” The other swimmer was the tallest of the three (well, four, the other one was in the ocean, seemingly unbothered by what was going on). He reminded him of Kiyoshi – had the gentle giant thing going on.
“Ahhh, Rei-chan's never right about social stuff.”
“That's completely untrue! I understand boundaries!”
The blonde – Nagisa – stuck his tongue out at the one with glasses. “You understand being boring. I wanna talk to them! We could go on double dates!”
That... shut everyone up.
Well, almost.
Nagisa turned back in his direction, smiling brightly. “I'm Nagisa! The killjoy in glasses is Rei-chan--”
“Ryugazaki,” the guy in question corrected, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
“So formal, Rei-chan!” The blonde giggle, leaning back against Rei, who blushed so hard it looked like it hurt. Didn't faze Nagisa, though. “Anyway, the guy over here is Mako-chan!”
The tall, broad-shouldered brunette gave him a very Kiyoshi-like smile. “It's nice to meet you. This is Har--” He looked over his shoulder and gasped. “Haru?!”
“He's in the water, Mako-chan,” Nagisa said with a giggle. “You should know that!”
Makoto made his apologies, bowed, and darted off in the direction of the other member of their group.
Taiga was briefly grateful to find out there were weirder teams than Seirin's.
“Anyway,” the blonde continued, perpetually bubbly and completely oblivious to his discomfort. Tetsu was blank, as always when forced to come in contact with strangers. “I wanted to tell you what a cute couple you were! How long-- ow!” Nagisa whined, pouting prettily and shooting one hell of a kicked puppy face towards Rei.
Rei flinched. “You don't know anything about them...! Stop this!”
“We're, uh...” Taiga tried to search for a way out, an explanation – they hadn't done anything too couply, had they? “We're just--”
“Thank you.”
Taiga blink, looking down at his boyfriend.
Thank you?
Rei looked slightly scandalized, but Nagisa was grinning. “See?! Ahh, we should take them out, Rei-chan! We can go back to that karaoke place! I bet we'd--”
“No!” Rei was getting increasingly annoyed. It was pretty damn amusing from an outsider's point of view. The two of them made him and Tetsu look pretty relaxed. “We don't know them at all!”
“That's the point, Rei-chan! We get to know them! Through song!”
“You're impossible!”
“Don't you want to prove we're better?”
“Hey.” He wasn't about to let that go, even if interrupting them was a little scary. They both turned pretty heated glares his way. Taiga resisted the urge to take a step back. “Who says you'd win?”
“I'm not a very good singer, Kagami-kun,” Tetsu murmured at his side. Despite hearing 'Kagami' from him daily at practice, it was still a little jarring, especially since this was their day. “Maybe--”
“What are your names?” Nagisa cut in, digging into his jacket pocket to pull out his phone. “Tell me, tell me! We should exchange numbers!”
“Kuroko Tetsuya,” Tetsuya said softly. “He is Kagami Taiga.”
Nagisa made a happy noise. “Okay, Tetsu-chan, Taiga-chan, what do you say you come swimming with us? If you have fun, we exchange numbers!”
Taiga looked down at his boyfriend who was looking up at him with the same unsure expression.
“We're training, Nagisa-kun.” Rei nudged his glasses along the bridge of his nose. “They wouldn't be able to keep up.”
This time, he and Tetsu leveled a glare.
“We aren't swimmers,” Tetsu agreed. His voice was a little lower, a little threatening, despite his words. He was going to have to find somewhere to make out with him until their mouths were sore. “But underestimating us is a bad idea.”
“Very bad,” he agreed, resting his arm on Tetsu's head. He could feel the annoyance coursing through him. It made him smirk. “We could give you a list of people who found out the hard way...”
“We don't have that kind of time, Kagami-kun.”
Taiga laughed, deigning to wrap his arm around his boyfriend's shoulders, snatched Nagisa's phone from his hand to start putting in his information.
“Yeah,” he murmured, giving Tetsu a squeeze. “We'll just have to show them.”
Five hours later they were back in Taiga's apartment, exhausted, somehow sore in places they never had been, and hungry enough to eat a fast food place out of business.
There were also several unread texts on both of their phones.
“You... I'm never doing anything for you again,” Taiga said, groaning as he attempted to roll onto his side to look at the guy he was talking to. After a few tries, he gave up, and glared at the ceiling. “I'm going to die during practice tomorrow.”
“You're the one who demanded another lap.”
“Shut up! I almost had them!”
Tetsu pressed himself to his side, resting his cheek on his chest. “You had nothing.”
“Neither did you.”
He started to nod off after that, but just as he was going to sleep, he felt slightly chapped lips brush his jaw.
“I enjoyed today, Taiga,” he whispered, curling his arm around his waist. “Thank you.”
While he only grunted in reply, he knew every ache in his body was completely worth it if Tetsuya was happy.